


A bone for Bones

by puskababy



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Male Bonding, Medical Procedures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 05:16:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puskababy/pseuds/puskababy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Jim injures himself on an away mission, Bones has to put him back together, but realises there may be someone else to thank for the Captains wellbeing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A bone for Bones

The piece of bone resting on the scanner looked perfectly innocent, an innocuous memory of a life form that had long since left this plane, but Leonard McCoy knew it for what it was. A life saver. Certainly this little piece of bone – no doubt a rib bone from an animal had saved the life of the person most important to him. 

He still couldn’t believe it had happened really, but he knew whenever Jim Kirk was involved he had to suspend his belief. That kid had a bad habit of getting himself into trouble, just as he’d done down on the planet – a tourmaline coloured sphere that had loomed on the scanners and lured the Captain to it’s surface as surely as if it had beckoned with a finger. 

Tearing his eyes away from the bone fragment he went to stand by the biobed and gazed down onto the heavily sedated face of his friend. Jim looked like shit, but then again he supposed if he’d had to have had a piece of bone jammed through his chest to help him breathe, he would be no oil painting either. 

He’d already read Spock’s report, about how Jim had been injured on the planet’s surface after a rock fall, suffering a tension pnuemo-thorax, a breach of his chest cavity that meant air became trapped in the pleural space, making breathing nigh impossible, and death an almost certainty. Goddamit, typical Jim, he never did anything by half. 

Leonard hadn’t beamed down to the surface with the others, he’d been working on inoculation records for the entire crew, and he left that sort of thing to the others. Transporters always made him nauseous anyway. He preferred to keep his feet on solid ground – well as solid as the deck of the Enterprise got anyway. 

Spock’s voice had been its usual calm cadence, maddeningly informative on what had happened and the best means to treat the Captain. He’d been too unstable to beam up, and a small ion storm in their quadrant meant Leonard couldn’t beam down either. Perfect situation really. 

“You need to make an incision in his chest so the trapped air can escape and he can breathe” he’d instructed, hoping against hope that the Vulcan had something with which to do that. Apparently he had – a hollow piece of bone that served as an almost perfect solution, albeit a temporary one. 

“You’ll be able to hear the air escaping as you make the incision. Do it now Spock”

“One moment” 

Leonard could only hold his breath and wait as Spock did as instructed. He couldn’t hear anything, but after a few agonising moments Spock came back online. 

“The captain appears to be breathing normally for now. The incision has served to allow for oxygen saturation. Request immediate beam up for further medical treatment”

That had been five hours ago, and now things were back to normal – well as normal as they could be. It was definitely strange seeing Jim so still, and in a biobed no less. In all the time Leonard had known him he’d never seen the other man so still, not even back at the Academy. Maybe he should relish it, he thought dryly. 

Thankfully the bone fragment was clean, he shuddered at the thought of all the potential nasties on that thing, but Jim’s scans showed he was fine, a bit battered but fine. His lung had been repaired with various tissue regenerators and he was just finishing up now with a dermal knitter, which had Jim been awake, Leonard was sure he’d be complaining about. They didn’t hurt that much, they just tickled. 

He’d just stepped away to recharge the dermal wand when Jim stirred, grunting softy as he swam back to consciousness. His fast metabolism meant he burnt through various medications quickly, sedation included. Damn it, Leonard had wanted to keep him under for longer so his body could recover. 

“Easy kid, just lie still” Leonard said, reaching for Jim’s wrist. Sure the readout confirmed his pulse, but Leonard was old-fashioned like that, he liked to feel the evidence under his fingertips. 

“What happened?” Jim’s voice was shot and Leonard held up a cup of water, waiting till the other man had taken a sip. 

“You took a hard fall and punctured your lung. Pretty nasty stuff, but you’ll be ok” he said, sitting the cup on the bench. 

Jim squinted up at him. “You fixed me up again?”

“Yes. As always” he said, referring to the many times in their Academy days when he’d patched Jim’s scrapes. 

“My knight in shining…scrubs” Jim smirked. 

Leonard stepped away, rolling his eyes. Ok the kid was fine if he was already cracking jokes. Maybe he should give him his inoculation while he was here. He knew getting Jim down here was difficult enough, damn near impossible when he knew he had to have a shot. 

“That’s not mine is it?” Jim asked, his eyes trained on the piece of bone still resting on the counter.

“No, this little fragment actually saved your life. Spock had to jam it into your chest so you could breathe: which I bet he loved” Leonard muttered darkly, running his fingers over the smooth surface of the bone. 

“Can I keep it?”

He rolled his eyes. “How did I know you were going to say that?”

“Because you know me. Maybe I’ll let you have it. A bone, for Bones, heh” Jim chuckled, wincing slightly as his still-tender chest protested. 

“Ok, that’s enough idle chatter. Get some sleep”

“My chatter is never idle, it’s a welcome part of your day I’m sure” Jim said, settling back on his pillows. 

Leonard snorted and reached for the hypospray containing Jim’s inoculation. Almost every other crew -member had received theirs, save for the landing crew. 

“What’s that?”

“It’s an inoculation for Capellan blood worm. You were due for it as soon as I could get you down here” Leonard said, loading the shot and holding the device against Jim’s neck. 

“Ouch! You do that deliberately I swear” Jim grumbled, rubbing the spot. 

“Don’t be a baby”

“I just had my lung punctured. I think that makes me far less of a baby than most people. I can’t believe Spock put that through my chest” Jim said, his eyes back on the bone. 

“I know” Leonard said softly, his mind turning to the same thing. Spock had been damn lucky the bone had even been there: otherwise he didn’t want to think about the consequences. Apparently Jim didn’t like that train of thought either. 

“You’ll be ok Jim, just get some sleep. We’ll have you back on the bridge in no time” he said, resting a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. 

Jim nodded and closed his eyes. “Thanks Bones”

“Don’t thank me, thank Spock. He’s the one who did most of the work” Leonard said, smiling wryly. Damn pointy -eared bastard. He remembered the look of shock on the Vulcan’s face, and the almost tender way he clasped Jim’s hand as they rushed him to the sickbay. Just when he didn’t think the hob-goblin had it in him, he’d seen remarkable tenderness. 

Maybe he should thank him too.


End file.
